Hey folks! In one of our apps we're using the FamilyControls framework to manage the screentime for the child. The app requires the Guardian to activate a subscription on his/her device to enable the functionality for the Child on the child device. We're currently using StoreKit 2 to get notified when there is an active subscription. The issue we're seeing (and our users) is that an activated subscription isn't instantly propagated to the Family members, in this case the device belonging to the child. Is this a known bug, and are the possible any workarounds? Currently we have to ask our users to "Restore Purchase" or wait minutes/hours for the app to active, which isn't a viable solution. We want it to "just work" :) Sincerely, César Pinto Castillo Ambi Studio

An error was reported when requesting permissions on devices with iOS 16.2 16.3. It is not an emulator. Through the log records, the following Error message appears Error Domain=FamilyControls.FamilyControlsError Code=3 "(null)" Error Domain=FamilyControls.FamilyControlsError Code=4 "(null)" Error Domain=FamilyControls.FamilyControlsError Code=5 "(null)" func requestScreenTime() async -> Bool { do { try await AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .individual) return AuthorizationCenter.shared.authorizationStatus == .approved } catch { print("\(error)") return false } }

I have been approved for family controls entitlements and see them in my apple certificates for my bundle identifier. I see them listed for Distribution in my Runner, however, when I try to distribute I get the error that I do not have the right permissions. Do I need to get the entitlements for each extension I have as well? I have three extensions that use the family controls.

I have tried multiple time through multiple channels and you have yet to respond to my request. I am developing an App on xcode APP Bundle ID: garymdmd.MediaPace Apple ID: 6740823496 Apple has granted me distribution use of the Family Control/Screentime module for my main app. According to your engineer's post here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/764919 That permission should be extended to your extensions that are part of the app. When you try to setup the extension identifiers they do not show the "added capabilities" column that sow sup when getting permission for the main app so you are not able to endow the extension with these permissions which seem to be needed to work with the app. I am trying to add these bundle identifier extensions: garymdmd.MediaPace.ScreenTimeMonitorDuo garymdmd.MediaPace.DeviceActivityReport Can you please tell me how to get this to work or to add permissions to these extensions. I have sent in the request form multiple times (here - https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/family-controls-distribution) and Apple simply writes back that I have permission after a few weeks but nothing changes for the extension capabilities.

Issue with Universal Links and App Extension (ShieldAction Handler) I'm currently working on a POC app using the FamilyControls framework and facing an issue when trying to open a Universal Link from an app extension, specifically from a ShieldAction handler. When I try to open a Universal Link, I encounter the following error: Failed to open URL https://sixteen-server-c008110f8759.herokuapp.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association: Error Domain=FBSOpenApplicationServiceErrorDomain Code=1 "The request to open 'com.apple.mobilesafari' failed." UserInfo={BSErrorCodeDescription=RequestDenied, NSUnderlyingError=0x14f2d90b0 {Error Domain=FBSOpenApplicationErrorDomain Code=3 "Application com.sixteen.life is neither visible nor entitled, so may not perform un-trusted user actions." UserInfo={BSErrorCodeDescription=Security, NSLocalizedFailureReason=Application com.sixteen.life is neither visible nor entitled, so may not perform un-trusted user actions.}} Context: I’m using a ShieldAction handler as part of an App Extension to trigger the action (e.g., "Break in Shield") in my app. The app extension (ShieldAction handler) is responsible for trying to open the Universal Link. I’m encountering the error because the app is not visible or entitled to perform this action, which seems to be related to security restrictions when using App Extensions. Questions: App Extension and Universal Link Interaction: Is it possible for an App Extension (like ShieldAction handler) to open a Universal Link or trigger an external app, such as Safari, even though it is not the foreground app? Entitlements for App Extensions: Are there any specific entitlements or permissions required to allow an app extension (ShieldAction handler) to open Universal Links or perform actions like opening Safari from the background? App Visibility and State: How can I ensure that my app is in the right state (visible/active) and has the necessary entitlements to trigger these actions when running in the context of an app extension? Workaround: If this behavior is restricted due to app extension limitations, what would be the recommended workaround to handle launching external apps (like Safari) or Universal Links from within an app extension?

We are developing a parental control application in SwiftUI with features like app blocking and screen time management. We are using the Family Control API along with Apple Family Sharing, allowing parents to add multiple children to the family group. We have followed the apple documentation still we are facing following issues: App Blocking Issue: The family picker does not display each child's name separately or their apps individually. Instead, it shows all children's apps together, making it difficult to block apps for a specific child. Screen Time Data Issue: We receive the total screen time usage for all children combined rather than separate screen time data for each child. Syncing Delay: When a new child is added to the Family Sharing group, we are unsure how long it takes for their apps to sync and appear on the parent’s device.

As discussed and acknowledged here, there is a known bug with the FamilyActivityPicker. When a user expands a category that contains enough tokens to exceed the 50mb memory limit, the FamilyActivityPicker crashes. This happens quite frequently for heavy Safari users. An apple engineer mentioned on this thread that WebDomains shown in the picker are present based on the last 30 days of usage data as surfaced by WebKit. Is there any way a user can clear these WebDomains? Either programatically through our app or any other process we can guide them to as a workaround while this issue is getting fixed?

Is it possible to change the title "Choose Activites" and also remove the search on the FamilyActivityPicker?

After transferring the App ownership to a different account, if you update the app on iOS, two identical apps will show up in Settings > Screen Time. Users can't control the blocking settings from before the update - the only fix is to restart the phone. After the next execution of manageStore.shield.applications, users still can't manually disable the restrictions - their only option is to uninstall and reinstall the app. I believe this is related to how Screen Time API's authentication works - it's not just tied to the app's bundle ID, but also linked to the developer account's organization ID. Any suggestions for a clean solution that would allow smooth app updates after the transfer without running into these issues?

I am getting this error when I try to show device activity report view by this DeviceActivityReport(appsContext, filter: filter) Attempt to map database failed: permission was denied. This attempt will not be retried. I have taken access by this way. AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .individual)

Hello, I think it is quite a common use-case to open the parent app that owns the ShieldActionDelegate when the user selects an action in the Shield. There are only three options available that we can do in response to an action: ShieldActionResponse.none ShieldActionResponse.close ShieldActionResponse.defer It would be great if this new one would be added as well: ShieldActionResponse.openParentApp While finding a workaround for now, the problem is that the ShieldActionDelegate is not a normal app extension. That means, normal tricks do not work to open the parent app from here. For example, UIApplication.shared.open(url) does not work because we can’t access UIApplication from the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately. NSExtensionContext is also not available in the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately, so that’s also not possible. There are apps however, that managed to find a workaround, in my research I stumbled across these two: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/applocker-passcode-lock-apps/id1132845904?l=en-GB https://apps.apple.com/us/app/app-lock/id6448239603 Please find a screen recording (gif) attached. Their workaround is 100% what I’m looking for, so there MUST be a way to do so that is compliant with the App Store guidelines (after all, the apps are available on the App Store!). I had documented my feature request more than 2 years ago in this radar as well: FB10393561

Our app uses a 24-hour DeviceActivityMonitor repeating schedule to send users notifications for every hour of screen time they spend on their phone per day. Notifications are sent from eventDidReachThreshold callbacks at 1, 2, 3, etc, hour thresholds to keep them aware of their screen time. We have recently received an influx of emails from our users that after updating to iOS 17.6.1 their DeviceActivityMonitor notifications are saying their screen time was much higher than what is shown in DeviceActivityReport and their device's Screen Time settings. These users have disabled "Share Across Devices" - but I suspect the DeviceActivityMonitor is still getting screen time from their other devices even though that setting is turned off. Has anybody else noticed this, understands what is causing this, or could recommend a fix that we can tell our users to do?

Certain entitlements require special permission from Apple like DriverKit or Screentime API/Family controls. Those entitlements are tied to the bundle IDs of the app. If those entitlements have been granted for an app from developer A (personal account) and we transfer that app to developer B (organization account), including the bundle IDs, will those bundle IDs keep the entitlement? Or will we need to re-request from the developer account B? Any insights or experiences regarding this process would be greatly appreciated.

⬇️ ANYONE ON APPLE'S SCREEN TIME TEAM, PLEASE READ THIS ⬇️ Let's summarize the situation. 3rd-party apps with screen time access can be disabled by going to Settings > Screen Time > Apps with Screen Time Access. That's fine. Now, if I want to make it harder to remove my restrictions, I can ask a friend to enter a Screen Time Passcode for me. Great idea! The problem is my Screen Time Passcode isn't requested when disabling permissions for a third-party app. It's required for modifying any other Screen Time setting EXCEPT permissions for 3rd party apps. This is frustrating. The Screen Time passcode is a great feature. Making it compatible with permissions granted through the Family Controls framework is our NUMBER ONE REQUEST from tens of thousands of users. This feature has been requested for a long time (iOS 16, iOS 17, …): https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/714651 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/727291 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255421819 FB13548526
 If you're a developer working on Screen Time, share your feedback below or file one using Feedback Assistant. It is very disappointing to see it wasn't implemented for iOS 18. I can't believe this would require tremendous work from the Screen Time team to make it happen, but it would be a significant improvement for the Family Controls Framework and a ray of sunshine for all the developers who have worked really hard to deliver high-quality apps using the Screen Time API. Could an Apple engineer or a Screen Time team member give us any updates? Implementing this before the public release of iOS 18 would make A LOT of developers happy.

Some of our users encounter an issue after updating their iPhone/iPad to iOS 17.5.1. The tokens passed in the Shield Configuration extension don't match the tokens they selected in my app using the FamilyPicker before updating to iOS 17.5.1. It seems the tokens changed for no reason. My app can't match the token from the ShieldConfigurationDataSource to any tokens stored on my end, causing my shield screens to turn blank. The same applies to tokens in the Device Activity Report extension. The only workaround I've found is to tell affected users to unselect and reselect apps and websites to block in my app. This gets them new tokens from the FamilyActivityPicker, which solves the issue. However, for some users, the bug reoccurs a few days later. Tokens seem to change again, causing the same issue in the Shield Configuration extension. I am not able to reproduce the issue on my test devices so I have no sysdiagnose to attach. However, this issue is affecting other screen time apps: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/732845 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/756440 FB14082790 FB14111223 A change in iOS 17.5.1 must have triggered this behaviour. Could an Apple engineer give us any updates on this?

With the ScreenTime API Apple talks a lot about their focus on privacy and the data not leaving the device. Does that mean there would be a problem with an app where the users ScreenTime data is shared to a custom backend? Could this potentially cause an app to be rejected from the AppStore?

Hi, I have a released screentime app ScreenZen. The last few days I've seen a disturbing spike in bug reports coming from people with 17.4.1 and 17.5.1 phones with no update to the app itself. People reported they saw the issue immediately after updating their iOS version. Unfortunately it is not replicable on all phones with those versions, so we haven't been able to replicate it on our test phones. It appears the issue is the ApplicationToken passed into ShieldActionExtension and ShieldConfigurationExtension does not match any of the ApplicationTokens that the user selected to block through FamilyControls. (The selected ApplicationTokens are being loaded through a group UserDefaults and they are indeed being loaded in the ShieldActionExtension in the bug reports).This is preventing the app from loading the correct settings and handling the blocking accordingly. I am trying to isolate this better with a new release with better logging, but would appreciate any help on this issue.

Both view and modifier versions of the FamilyActivityPicker crash randomly when selecting some items (usually the other option) throwing these in the console: [com.apple.FamilyControls.ActivityPickerExtension(1150.1)] Connection to plugin invalidated while in use AX Lookup problem - errorCode:1100 error:Permission denied portName:'com.apple.iphone.axserver' PID:22091 ( 0 AXRuntime 0x00000001c603b0fc _AXGetPortFromCache + 800 1 AXRuntime 0x00000001c603cce0 AXUIElementPerformFencedActionWithValue + 700 2 UIKit 0x0000000230de3ec8 DDE6E0C5-2AC3-3C73-8CFE-BC88DE35BB5F + 1453768 3 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103ef0b98 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 32 4 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103ef27bc _dispatch_client_callout + 20 5 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103efa66c _dispatch_lane_serial_drain + 832 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103efb408 _dispatch_lane_invoke + 408 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103f08404 _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 328 8 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103f07a38 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 444 9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00000001f0824f20 _pthread_wqthread + 288 10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00000001f0824fc0 start_wqthread + 8 ) This also happens in production apps like the Opal. The questions are: At least how to detect it to be able to manually reload the sheet (like what Opal does and shows an alert when this happens) How to prevent it in the first place? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Here is a post to gather findings in case anyone found out what this new API does. Apple did not include any comments or documentation and due to the generic naming we don't know what this API might does. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/deviceactivity/deviceactivityauthorization?changes=latest_major

Our users report frequent crashes with the FamilyActivityPicker. Since this is a screen controlled by Apple, I'm assuming that there's nothing I can do to prevent these crashes. I'm wondering, though, if there's any way to gracefully handle these crashes? When this happens, the following is printed to the console: [com.apple.FamilyControls.ActivityPickerExtension(1121)] Connection to plugin invalidated while in use. Does anyone know how to handle/catch this error?